From the Universal Public Media Center in Bethlehem, P.A.. PBS 39 and Lehigh Valley News.com.

Welcome you to a community conversation.

Mideast Crisis Hits Home.

Good evening.

I'm Brittany Sweeney.

Three weeks ago, the world changed.

Today, war is raging between Israel and Hamas and a humanitarian crisis is unfolding in Gaza.

PBS 39 and Lehigh Valley News.com are proud to bring together local stakeholders for this community conversation.

The Mideast crisis hits home from the Universal Public Media Center in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

With everything going on in the Middle East right now, this is not a program about litigating thousands of years of history.

Rather, this is a program about our community here in the Lehigh Valley.

The conflict has led to protests.

90% of my neighborhood is Orthodox Jews.

Many of which are anti dehumanization of Palestinians.

Candlelight vigils and strained relationships all in response to events happening halfway around the world.

Even from such a great distance, we're seeing an impact locally.

And this program is about how we can protect ourselves from misinformation.

Our children from fear and our families from hate.

And it's about how, for some local families, the situation in the Middle East is far more than just a sad news story.

With us this evening, our Rabbi Michael Singer of Congregation Breath Shalom in Bethlehem and Imam Yousef Rios from Respect Mosque and Respect Graduate School and Islamic Studies program, also here in Bethlehem.

Gentlemen, thank you so much for joining us for this conversation.

Thank you for having us here.

Absolutely.

It's great to have you both.

Historically, interfaith relations between different organizations here in the Lehigh Valley have been overall healthy.

How has the situation in Israel and then Israel's response to that situation, how has that changed relationships, if it has at all, here in the Lehigh Valley?

And, Rabbi Singer, we'll start with you.

Sure.

So in 2017, I started the Bethlehem Interfaith Group, and we are an interfaith organization here in Bethlehem that has over 30 houses of worship that are part of it.

And that was in response to the uptick in hate starting in 2016.

And what we have put together a vision for us building a Bethlehem that we want to live in as a community.

And so interfaith relations are critical and really important.

We get together every single month and we do things to sort of break down those barriers of hate, to get to know each other, to support each other, and to build a city and hopefully a Lehigh Valley that we want to live in.

So interfaith relations are critical and important because we can do this together and this moment right now, even more so that we need to be able to stand and support each other together.

To say no to the hate, no to Hamas, no to the horror that's going on, and also reaching out to those who are suffering, who are innocent, both in Israel and in Gaza.

Sure.

Have those groups come together and talked about the situation that's happening and if so, what have those talks been like?

So we have a meeting that's coming up.

We do the first Thursday of the month.

It will be at the Congregation Bridge Shalom Synagogue.

And we're talking about Thanksgiving and our interfaith Thanksgiving service that we do and program and how we can both be inclusive and give gratitude and thanks that we can do so together, that we can find a way to model the kind of coexistence, the kind of support that we want to build in the world.

And it starts locally.

It starts right here.

Sure.

Imam Rios, what would you say?

How are relationships before and how are they now after the beginning of October strikes?

I think that the situation that people are experiencing is both emotional and then the clash back on the political front.

And what we're seeing, we're starting to see actual violence towards the Muslim community.

And this is nationwide and even locally, we're seeing it as well.

We've had a murder.

We have had an attempted murder in the in the Midwest and in the Harrisburg area.

Someone brandished a weapon on a muslim family.

And then in Cleveland, there was an actual someone was intentionally hit with a vehicle over this situation that's going on overseas.

So there's this the angle of keeping the community safe.

And then how do you frame this dialog where it doesn't agitate the situation more between the various communities?

Because it's been a heated situation for quite a long time.

And of course, now it's very heated.

Absolutely.

That's scary for either side if people are retaliating against someone because of their religion.

So how do you talk to your congregation about that?

How have you been addressing that?

So first of all, we separate the what's going on with the Palestinian people is not equated with Hamas.

And that's one of the things that we separate.

And we also say that this is not an anti-Jewish reality.

Right.

We're separating between political stances that have been taken or certain acts of violence that have been perpetuated on certain communities.

Separate that out from how we're going to deal with each other so that we at least have some sort of ethical framework and we humanize each other in the process, even if we may disagree over language and this and that.

But that's what we've been prompting our community to really take on as a message.

Sure.

So keep politics and religion separate of each other.

Is the message or humanize?

Keep each other, humanize in the process where we're debating, you know, whatever may be the case.

Sure, we're all human and make sure that we don't bring the violence here.

Absolutely.

Rabbi Singer, how have you been talking to your congregation about the situation?

So this is we need to frame it a little bit because since 2016, the rise of anti-Semitism locally and nationally here in the United States is through the roof.

Just last year, in 2022, the last recorded year, we have numbers.

There were over 3600 anti-Semitic incidents in this country.

And our synagogues have changed.

This Shabbat will mark five years since the shooting in Pittsburgh at the Tree of Life Synagogue, where 13 worshipers went for Shabbat morning service to pray and were gunned down because of of anti-Semitism and hate.

So our community is totally transformed locally.

You cannot just walk into a synagogue anymore.

For most people, you can walk into the mosque, you can walk into a church.

You can't just walk into a synagogue.

We have armed security at all services in our community.

Our buildings are fortified.

We've hired security coordinators.

There is so much that people are afraid of because of the anti-Semitism that's long before this began that is so pervasive.

And so the community is already shocked and and mourning both for the world that we knew and what we had hoped in our local community where just last week during a funeral, there was a bomb threat to one of the local synagogues.

So you can imagine during a funeral, all of a sudden having to evacuate because all of a sudden there's been a bomb threat called in to the synagogue.

This is the world that unfortunately we are living in, within the Jewish community, across the country as anti-Semitic ism has risen to throughout both through white supremacy and also on the other side in a delegitimization of the right to people, Jewish and pro-Israel.

We've seen this across the board, and it's impacted the community.

People are afraid.

People are worried about wearing a keeper out in public and I'm sure also in the Muslim community wearing things that would distinguish them as Muslim or distinguish someone as Jewish.

And this is an intolerable we cannot let this continue.

We cannot let hate win.

We have to rise above that.

And yet it's a real challenge for the community.

We have a lot of changes that we've made in our synagogues and in our community centers, in our Jewish day schools, too, to try to protect the community from the violence and from the hate.

But I've experienced it firsthand, even crossing the street from where I live, right to the synagogue, people shouting out anti-Semitic slurs.

This is now exacerbating that.

And so we are both there's only one place in the entire world where Jews could go when things got really bad, and that was Israel, the only Jewish state back to our homeland.

Back to where Abraham walked.

And the prophets.

And now even there, the feeling of insecurity, of not being safe, not having a refuge, not having a place.

If you look around the world at the anti-Semitism in Europe and you look at what's going on, where are we to go?

Where are we safe?

This is what's going through the minds of my members, going through my mind as well, my children.

And we hope that not only will dialog and and working together to try to not only have a civil discourse about things we may disagree with, but to decry any type of hate and violence against any community, whether it's racism, bigotry, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, homophobia.

These things are not acceptable in our society.

And they should crawl back under the rock from where they came.

Rabbi Singer, I do want to talk a little bit more about your congregation.

Is there anybody that you are working closely with who may have loved ones over in Israel or who have been called up to fight?

I do.

Half of my family have been called to the IDF in Israel.

My closest family, my my father's brother, my uncle and all my first cousins live in Israel and there are many others.

We even have members of our community who have made aliya, which means they've moved to Israel who are serving in the IDF as well now.

So this affects the community because the Jewish community, we always say there are six degrees of separation in the normal community.

There are only three in the Jewish community.

Culhane Lavi in Israel.

You know, it's a very, very close knit community.

Everybody knows everybody.

Remember, Israel is the size of New Jersey.

So and so what you have is this these layers and layers of interconnection.

And so what happens there affects us, and what happens here affects them.

So they've seen the rise of anti-Semitism here at home, and that's affected Israelis before this and where they've tried helping us.

And now we're also seeing what's happening there and we're trying to help as well, particularly the hostages that are being held.

Sure.

Imam, I want to ask you the same question.

Do you have people here in the Lehigh Valley who have ties to Gaza and that situation over there right now?

You know what we are experiencing We we've actually also had a school, an Islamic school in Chicago, that received a bomb threat and it closed down the whole school system.

And they went you know, the Islamic school ended up going online.

And so we're experiencing that sense of of fear and even terror as well, that the other side of it is that we have members in our community that have lost 15, 20 family members that were killed in Gaza, and they were not combatants.

So we're we're struggling with the reality of people who have lost their loved ones.

And at the same time, they're experiencing, you know, direct attacks here or or fear.

You know, so we're we're in that situation in a precarious world right now.

Sure.

What do you want?

People outside of the congregation to know about this situation?

What should people who maybe are not directly affected because of their religion or because of family members, what would you like them to know?

To be honest with you, what we're pushing for and it's a political position and it's a humanitarian position.

We're pushing for a cease fire.

We're pushing for a cease fire.

And we're asking the politicians to tone down the rhetoric because it's creating an environment here within the U.S. itself that is is promoting violence.

We've already we were seeing that the anti-Semitic directed towards the anti-Semitic rhetoric and actions that was directed towards the Jewish community.

The same thing we're seeing a form of antisemitism directed towards the Palestinian Arab community because they happen to be cousins.

You know, so the reality of the situation is we need the politicians to tone down and we need journalists to be very responsible.

And how they're framing this, because if it's framed the wrong ways, is going to provoke war.

You know, and we're talking about not just a war between Hamas and Israel, that type of thing.

We're talking about possibly involving other countries.

So we're in a very unstable situation right now, and we all have to be responsible and how we are addressing it.

Sure.

Has the local community, the local Muslim community here in the Lehigh Valley condemned the attacks, the attacks, the Hamas attacks on Israel?

The reality of the situation is how it's being framed and this is specifically very much a centered around the Palestinian community, even though it affects the rest of the Muslim community.

And I have to frame it the way the Palestinian community is framing it, whether I disagree with it or not, they're asking for people not to look at this in a vacuum, just like the U.N. was saying recently, the U.N. rep was saying, don't look at this in a vacuum.

You have to look at the conditions that were taking place in Gaza that led up to this.

That doesn't mean that anyone supports a terrorist attack on anyone.

But what's happening is that there's not a dialog that's allowing the rest of the Palestinian community to voice itself.

And this has been made a Hamas issue versus the Israeli government.

And so the Palestinian community doesn't feel that that's fair or just right.

So that's the so basically we're all being asked right now, why do we have to condemn anything?

Right.

Why is it that we are responsible for condemning.

Right.

We if if the US has not been able to solve this with all of the diplomacy that has been brought to the forth, why are we being asked to condemn something that we're not even clear on what took place?

We know that people died, but there was no there was no official investigation that came out.

There was a war that took place without any consultation with anyone.

So now we're being asked to give a blank check for war.

And this is exactly what happened in Iraq.

So we're being a little more reserved that we want things to take place according to law.

We don't want things to take place according to what is being put in the media, some of it which has been misinformation and is being used as an ethical card to push things forward.

We're going to talk more about what's being put in the media.

You know, some of the news that you can trust or not trust, but what about the how barbaric some of these attacks have been?

We've heard about how barbaric they've been.

Did that surprise you?

There's no doubt.

There's no doubt that the whole issue of the taking of human life, period, is problematic, especially if we have an ethical position.

But the fear that we have is that we are being asked to condemn Hamas.

But now we have 6000 Palestinians that have basically died.

We have 2 million Palestinians that are being displaced.

They're actually being asked to leave.

They're not being invited into Israel.

They're being asked to leave to go into Egypt, which they may not return after that.

And we have 50,000 women that are pregnant.

We have a health care system that has completely collapsed and we have food, electricity, water and any other aid has been completely denied to the Palestinian people, not Hamas.

You know, and so so our position is that we're dealing with world militaries.

If if a terrorist organization can cause a world military to go into this type of position and act emotional versus if the case is Hamas directly, then the Mossad should deal with Hamas directly.

But what our concern is that the Palestinian people now have become, you know, the ones that are the collateral damage here.

So, Rabbi Singer, I want to invite you into this conversation that we're having right now.

What do you have to say to that?

Disagree on this, my friend, and here's why.

Our fight is not with the Palestinian people.

Our fight is with Hamas, which is sworn in its charter, never to make peace, but to destroy Israel and to to kill Jews.

That is what Hamas is.

It is different than the Palestinians who are suffering.

And also importantly here, this was a brutal attack on a holiday.

It was Simchat Torah, it was Shabbat, it was at Sarit.

We were there was a music festival of people who were there for music and peace.

They came, they they murdered babies.

They murdered children.

They murdered people in their homes.

They took 200 over 220.

Now I hear four hostages into Gaza.

This wasn't this is not the Palestinian.

This is Hamas that is controlling Israel.

Pulled out of the Gaza Strip.

They left the Gaza Strip, but Hamas overthrew the Palestinian Authority.

Hamas is the one that directed all the money and aid and things to build Gaza to war, weapons of war, of tunnels, of hate.

They're sworn to destroy Israel.

There is no question this is not the Palestinian Authority.

This is Hamas.

They are funded by Iran.

They're partners with Hezbollah.

This is a murder blatantly of innocent civilians and people.

That is what it is.

I agree on both sides.

I agree.

No, hold on.

I agree that, unfortunately, Hamas is holding the Palestinians in Gaza hostage, using them as human shields.

There is fuel in Gaza.

It's in the tunnels.

Hamas has it.

They just won't release it to the hospitals.

There is a humanitarian aid that is now coming through Rafah.

The reality is the Egyptians didn't want to open the border because they're afraid of Hamas, too.

The idea is that we must stand up and fight evil and we must destroy not only for the for the Israelis, not only for the Jewish people, but also to give the Palestinian people an opportunity, possibly of having two nations living side by side in peace.

That is, I think, our ultimate goal together.

We want to live like we live here in peace, one community next to the other, working together for a better world.

I believe most Israelis and I believe most Palestinians want that as well.

But with Hamas controlling, there is no other country in the world that would accept new rocket missiles, thousands of them on their cities, that would accept this type of attack and not root out the evil to give an opportunity for the Palestinians to have independence, but also for the Jewish state of Israel to live in peace.

And that is what we want.

And until Hamas stops using schools, using civilians as human shields and as pawns in their twisted and warped world, then we will not get there because there is no way.

What does that mean technically?

Because what that means is that the removal of this mosque and having another authority, whether you would.

But see, now we went into the political will after because two, three years ago, the U.N. issued a report that was talking about the conditions in Gaza in high would lead up to this.

Haaretz published an article which is from the Israeli Voice itself, from the editorial board.

They blame Netanyahu for this situation.

This is this really this is the Israeli voice.

Gideon Levy himself wrote a book on Gaza and the problem in Gaza, and he came out, he condemned this.

Noam Chomsky talked about how many times there was proposals for a political solution that was rejected by our country, the US, through its veto and in Israel.

So but all of that aside, are we saying that we're going to continue where there were two other people behind the scenes were offered hold on the second, by Yasser Arafat.

I remember there were two of them.

So we're going to continue to allow Israel to bomb the Palestinian community, aside from Hamas.

Hamas.

No, because the Palestinian community and Hamas are not equal to each other.

Obviously, this is an extremely, extremely tense situation.

Everybody's got their opinions on both sides.

But let me ask you both this.

How do we move forward peacefully here in the Lehigh Valley?

How do we continue to work together and have peace and work together and have that healthy relationship between interfaith communities like.

I think the Bethlehem Interfaith Group is a really important piece.

Like we work together to try to bring our communities closer together to sort of take down the stigmas.

We visited the mosque.

We do a faith crawl where we hire busses and we bus people who have never walked into a mosque before, didn't know what to expect, were frightened maybe of it, or walk into a synagogue, had never been in one before, were frightened of doing that.

We try to break down the stereotypes and barriers to get to work together on things we share, which is building this community for the positive.

I think we both want to work for the positive.

We want to close the naked, feed the hungry.

We all share this together.

And yet on this issue, I think there are fortunately, like I said before, innocent people who are dying.

But you can't leave, in my opinion, Hamas intact.

And furthermore, the anti-Semitism, the anti-Semitism reality, the anti-Semitism that is in this country right now beyond church, you know, we are 2.2% of the population.

That's what this blue pen is.

But we have over 50% of the hate crimes against the Jewish community.

That's even underreported.

There were over 36,000 anti-Semitic incidents just in 2022.

It is absurd.

We have to work together because they don't just hate Jews.

They often also turn their hate to the Muslim community and to the African American community and to the LGBTQ community.

Here we can stand together for not only what the community we want to build, but living peacefully together and and lifting each other in faith up to say we may have different ideas we have, but we have a common.

Yeah, we have a common ground on the preservation of of human dignity, even with those that we don't agree with.

Even on the far right, we don't.

We don't we agree that we don't want to see any violence here at home towards toward the Jewish community or to the Muslim group or to the society in general.

I mean, that's why I think we have all these debates on gun bans and all this type of stuff.

But the thing, Rabbi, where we don't agree is that when it comes to our tax dollars, we're asking.

It seems to me that you're asking us to give a blank check for allowing Israel to just go and attack the Palestinian community, Hamas, not the Palestinian community.

But and until we just want to thank you both.

I will thank you.

You both made wonderful points today, very valid points.

And I think I want to thank you both sincerely for joining us for this conversation.

I think it's been a really great conversation.

Hopefully you'll come together in those interfaith groups again and talk more about this.

But I want to thank you both so much for joining us for this program today.

Thank you, Brittany.

Nice for having us.

All right.

Thank you, gentlemen.

Amid a crisis and an outcry for humanitarian aid, Americans across the country are stepping up to help.

For many, this means sending money to relief agencies and those in need.

But how do you do it without getting scammed?

In Pennsylvania, the attorney general's office offered this advice when donating to support charitable causes amid the Israel-Hamas conflict.

A three step process.

First, ask questions Who is getting the money and how much of your donation are they getting?

Ask for an employee ID or tax ID number.

Second, double check.

Do your research.

Check the IRS and Pennsylvania Department of State to find out if this indeed is a registered charity.

Use trusted sites that research charitable organizations.

And third, be careful how you send that money.

Never send cash or use a debit card.

Credit cards are best.

And for more information, visit the website at Attorney General dot gov.

If you believe you have been a victim of a scam, contact your local police department to file a report and file a complaint with the Office of Attorney General's Bureau of Consumer Protection.

There are some great tips there for sure to keep you and your money safe.

Let's move on.

News reports and social media have contained images of bloodshed and brutality.

It can take a tremendous mental toll.

I went to downtown Bethlehem to find out how people are reacting.

It's devastating to feel that amount of sadness and and anguish and trauma that that people are going through in this world.

And we can't do anything about it.

I'm really hoping for peace.

Fear for my Jewish friends and my Palestinian friends.

There are days I just can't my psyche cannot handle it.

I hope that we get better as a people across the world.

They're showing what needs to be seen in and as World War Two began to break out.

The coverage wasn't provided.

So what was happening to Jews in Germany was not provided to the people.

So I think we need to see it as difficult as it is just anguish, fear over the potential destabilization of the entire region.

I intentionally avoided social media accounts of it because I don't want to see either misinformation or things that are just gruesome.

That's not helpful to me.

I think that the horrors of war need to be depicted.

But, you know, it requires editorial judgment.

I think if you want to watch it, you can.

There's plenty of places to go in Syria that I've actually protested.

Just devastated for the Israeli population.

I mean, the the Hamas conflict there with all the deaths, it's just it's just a crime against humanity.

So do you think that it's necessary to show all of this?

No, I don't.

And thanks to everyone who took the time to share their thoughts with us during times like this, it's important to distinguish between fact and fiction, especially on social media.

Knowing how to do that and who and what to trust can be difficult.

Here to help us wade through the flood of information and misinformation.

Is Jeremy La Torre, a professor of journalism at Lehigh University.

Thank you so much for joining us, Professor.

Thank you.

So obviously, it's a very heated topic, strong opinions.

And on top of that, we're seeing a flood of information come through, not just the media, but social media.

Nowadays we have all these different platforms where video can come through stories of war, and it's scary.

But it's also one of those things that we can't look away.

So big picture here, an international crisis like this.

How much are we getting real, true actual events coming through and and what are kind of the pluses and minuses of that?

Yeah, the the global crisis situation is always a stress test for social networks.

They they always struggle with misinformation and how to swat that stuff down and how to moderate and regulate it.

But when you deal with international crises, in particular, the things at a global scale, you're just going to get a flood of information that in these networks that is verifiable and true.

But also it's sitting alongside some of these networks of places, the types of information that is being concocted from whole cloth, right?

People who are lying, people who have propaganda purposes and alongside people who are citizen reporters on the scene.

I think what's interesting is our global access to information is is one of the benefits of these these networks.

Right.

I mean, we have, you know, 20 years ago when I was in college studying journalism, you know, we really had basically the legacy media in television and newspapers to to kind of inform us about what's going on.

And self-publishing us on digital networks now allows everyday people with cameras in their pockets, you know, be a cell phone to report on the scene.

And so it creates a very difficult situation for the networks to figure out how to moderate that information.

But I think it also puts a lot of pressure on citizens, you know, to have to figure out how do I judge the information coming at me in ways that, you know, you would have defaulted, you know, 30 years ago to, this The New York Times?

I tend to trust them.

And now it's not.

And now it's like this is information on Facebook, but you don't see Facebook as a publisher.

This is do I trust my uncle who's posting that?

You know, so there's a lot of embedded credibility problems with that that I don't think we've ever figured out how to solve in this day and age.

What percentage of the media and events are people getting on social media versus traditional forms of media?

Yeah, I mean, what's interesting about it is that other than like this is there's there's age differentials.

I think older folks tend to get most of the information from traditional sources, you know, what we would call credible, verifiable news.

But once you get below 50 years old, they're more likely to what we call information grazers.

There are people who tend to randomly go to a website every once in a while, but they're mostly finding their information, their news through search on Google News or through social networks, information being shared.

One of the big traffic drivers is Facebook.

You know, people tend to think about Twitter for news, but it's actually really Facebook that's driving a lot of this, this information sharing.

And so that's a primary traffic driver for a lot of news organizations.

Sure.

And we're seeing really graphic images come from this conflict.

Is there any value to seeing this play out on our you know, on our screens, on our social media?

Is there any value to seeing such graphic images being shown?

And then on top of that, secondly, those images that you're seeing, how do you know if they're legit or not?

Yeah.

So I'll talk about the second one first because artificial intelligence has made this problem much, much worse.

And we're you know, we're dealing with the kinds of images that you can generate from whole cloth on on sites like Dolly to that that can allow people to create images from a tech search, you know, and and they can report these things at night when you stare at them, you know, you don't really know that they're they're valid.

Like they've got flaws to the images.

But when you're flipping through it on a phone, like looking at on Instagram or on Facebook and you're scrolling and mobile, your brain's defenses are much lower.

And so that that is a real problem.

I think that misinformation is not a new problem, but I think that the visual aspect of it, particularly with artificial intelligence, worries me a great deal.

To your first question about violent images, I mean, I think one of the classic examples we used in my field was the infamous Napalm girl photo that the New York Times ran around the Vietnam War and the layers of institutional decision making that had to go through that had to go through before they decide to publish such a disturbing graphic image meant that there was a gatekeeper effect, you know, in place where you had people who were thinking thoughtfully about what are we trying to accomplish by running this photo?

You know what?

What is the impact that's going to have on our readership?

Is it worth the costs?

And so that was a it still remains a controversial choice that the New York Times made.

But now the that easy publishing makes this stuff readily available in networks.

I think that there's some that are doing a better job with trust and safety than others.

I mean, Twitter has just become a just a a glut of this type of information that's coming out because people are just passing from their accounts.

And I think that those two question does suppress their questions are linked in really important ways because their potential is value to publishing images that that disturb us, to just shake us out of our complacency.

But when there's not really good moderation controls in place to make sure that that information is being verified and true, then it has kind of a reverse shock value.

I really worry about two or how would you look at things and kind of going back and forth and kind of verify that this is a true source or what's your what's your advice for people looking at this information?

They don't take it at face value.

Where should they go to then see if it's true or not?

I think in times of crisis in particular, I tend to trust the news, and the news doesn't always get it right.

I mean, they've they've they publish their share of information that they had to walk back, even during this conflict and that this is not a new problem.

But I think journalistic methods can really save us in moments like this for a couple of reasons.

First of all, journalism is built around the notion of verification for publication, that you've got at least the reporters doing legwork in and to make sure that what they're sharing and what they're publishing has been at least they've tried to verify that it's happening there.

But secondly, when they make mistakes, they walk it back.

They make they make they make corrections and so forth.

And so I think that some of the organizations have gotten some of this information wrong.

The ones I tend to trust are the ones who who own that when they make mistakes.

And that, again, is like something that does not happen with people sharing individual and social media, right?

I mean, like you you make a mistake, you take it down.

You don't make apologies to your audience because you don't think of them as an audience.

Right.

And so I, I personally take the approach of if if, if an organization that supports a B news burns me, I don't trust them anymore and I don't use them as a source anymore.

Even if they're posting something that kind of resonates with what I agree with.

Because I think that at the end of the day, we have to kind of think of ourselves as potential polluters of information environments, the people following us on social networks, constructing an information that delivers the news, particularly on Facebook.

And so we have to take on the role of journalists in that point of view.

If I'm going to pass this on, how much can I trust that I'm sharing something that's as valid and true?

Sure.

Do you know, I think that's some great points that you make.

Do we know where some of this misinformation is coming from?

Where is it coming from, especially as it pertains to this crisis that we're talking about today?

Yeah, So we've had two really intriguing studies the last couple of weeks here.

One has has found that about 75% of the information, misinformation being shared on Twitter is coming from verified accounts.

And this is a bit of a wonky explanation, but there's been a structural change to Twitter in the last year that has allowed verification status to be anybody who pays $9 a month.

So those people are getting amplified and boosted on the network.

And so they have much greater prominence.

And so it actually creates incentives for these people to pay for verification.

Then then get their misinformation boosted.

So I tend to actually not trust anything that's coming from a verified account on Twitter right now, Twitter in general.

I'm not sure I trust much of it these days, but I think that being aware of that problem.

The other thing we're finding is that most of the misinformation being shared across networks is an interesting study at the University of Washington that was looking at that.

It that it's coming from just a handful of people.

There really are spokes on a network and they they become the primary spreaders of this information.

So again like going back to interrogating the source, like who's sharing this?

Does this person have any any way I can look at it and say, this is credible information, this is a credible for this person is who they say they are.

And if they're not that, I just tend to flip past it.

I mean, I certainly would think about that before sharing.

Sure.

Professor, you mentioned Twitter being kind of not the best trusted source right now.

Are there platforms that our viewers should go to for news versus other platforms?

Maybe we should stay away from that would recommend.

Yeah, I would.

I would trust anyone who is trying to use journalistic methods of verification and owning their response if they if they mess up.

Because I think that that we're human beings and journalists are journalists are human.

They make mistakes.

But at the end of the day, the way I look at it, as if you are able to correct the record, you're much more likely than a source.

The thing I point out is there's a really great site online called Bellingcat that's been doing a lot of citizen journalism verification, and they're using journalistic methods to verify some of this information.

One of the things that they've got that's really good is a digital forensics operation that's taking a look at some of the videos and photos that are being shared, trying to spot flaws in them that help us verify whether that information is actually created from whole cloth.

And I know journalists are using that information and reporting some wonderful tips here.

Thank you so much for helping us kind of go through the information and try to understand what is misinformation and what's actual information that we can trust.

Professor Jeremy La Torre from Lehigh Univ And we continue this community conversation.

The Mideast crisis hits home on PBS 39 and on Lehigh Valley News.com.

You can hear this program again in its entirety on 91.3 w lv vr on Monday at 11 a.m..

Shocking images on the news and social media can leave frightened impressions on adults and children.

As parents, Talking with our children about what's happening can help alleviate some of those fears.

If you need help talking to your child, resources are available.

One is Sesame workshop dot org and you know you are Rosita.

And so some things on TV scare me.

Rosita.

Well if you see something or hear something that makes you or you feel sad or scared, tell a grown up that's close to you like, you know.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It does seem that sometimes when we feel scared, talking about it can make us feel better.

Yeah.

And hugs makes me feel better, too.

Yeah.

Hugs help a lot too.

It really is a tough situation to talk about with some of the younger folks.

And for many talking about their concerns, as you just heard or talking about, what scares them can help them feel better.

And that brings us to our next guest.

The state of our mental wellbeing enables to cope with the stresses of everyday life, anxiety, depression and other side effects manifest when our mental health is being tested.

Earlier this week, I met with psychologist Dennis Geiger, a board member with the National Alliance on Mental Illness, Lehigh Valley.

We discussed how what's happening in the Middle East may be affecting our mental well-being here at home.

Dr. Geiger, thank you so much for joining us for this conversation.

You're welcome.

Britney, let's get right into it.

Trauma.

Feelings of fear, that kind of thing.

They can all play a huge role in mental health.

What are you hearing from people who are talking about this situation that's happening overseas?

Well, indeed, it adds to the stress of normal living and I do have some people that come to me and talk about the events that are going on and and how disturbing it is.

And it is disturbing.

It's normal to have these reactions and I point that out to them.

It's the modern life we live.

It's very stressful, especially post-COVID.

And now with the events in the Middle East just making for so much disturbance and uncertainty, it just adds to the mix.

Sure.

So are you hearing from people who are seeing this play out, say, in the media or on social media, or are you hearing from people who are directly impacted, whether they be in the religion or know someone overseas?

Well, most of it is from social media and media.

I mean, it's a dominant, dominant topic and all the media's and it's hard not to see it.

It turn on whatever.

And you're going to have that as the primary lead.

And it's disturbing the images and and are very disturbing.

And most people have a normal empathic response to that.

We feel sympathy.

We have concern for others.

Some of us even feel outrage of what's going on.

And it's a very difficult feeling to have and to live with and to cope with.

And there are ways of coping with it, though, and that's what I like people to know about.

Sure.

Let's talk about that.

If someone is feeling extreme feelings of sadness or fear when they're looking at these images, whether they are directly impacted by what's happening or just seeing it on their phone, on their screens, what can they do to cope with that?

What can they do to work through some of those feelings?

Well, first of all, I really recommend to people to understand there's two type of stressors.

One is those that are in our control and those that are outside of our control and the events that are going on in the Middle East or for the most part, outside of our control, there isn't very much that we can do about that directly, and thus we need to find ways to cope with it and to be able to put it in perspective.

Now I would say that we should be able limit our exposure.

That means how much time you're going to spend on social media or the newsfeeds and use that often on button take breaks.

Updates are only necessary maybe once or twice a day if need be.

It varies from age group to age group.

Know children probably shouldn't have very much exposure at all.

But adults, you know, you don't want to have your head in the sand on this.

You want to be concerned.

It's a normal response, but you want to limit the amount of exposure because it is that type of exposure that's out of our control.

The other thing is to frame it in such a way that it puts it in a more objective light that we can manage in the sense of saying, This is terrible, I wish there was something I could do about it, but I can't.

I don't have that kind of power control.

I'm going to have to trust in my leadership to be able to deal with this.

If if a person is faith based, they may be able to use a higher power to help them to turn it over to them and say, this is something that I'm just going to have faith that they're going to be able to deal with this.

God will take care of this.

We also need to sometimes distract ourselves from it, which means doing other things, getting involved in exercise, getting involved in walking, getting involved and doing activities, chores around the house, anything that distracts us from the events outside of our control.

And then, of course, grounding ourselves, grounding ourselves in our present day now environment to know that this is what is exactly going on in our world.

This is what we do have control over.

Like what I see, what I hear in front of me, what I sometimes even tell people to stamp their feet or shuffle feet as a way of grounding oneself.

And some of these can be mixed and match.

You could you could do things like walk in and look around at the same time.

As far as grounding and distractions, sure.

Is it normal for for people to feel like they are turning a blind eye?

If they're turning it off, is it okay to turn it off?

Is it okay to feel that way?

You know, if they feel like almost helpless?

I've heard a lot of people say helpless.

I feel like I can't help in some way.

But turning it off is okay, is what you're saying.

I think it's essential.

I think it's essential to turn it off at times.

It's time to take a break from it.

It's like people that are caregivers for people that need to be cared for.

You.

You care as much as you can.

You provide a service, but you have to take a break.

You've got to care for oneself.

You've got to make sure that you're healthy.

You're you're in a place where you are being able to stay strong.

And the same thing goes for our our position in the world of what what crises go on in the world around us.

We want not to ignore it.

We want to be good citizens in this world, but we don't want to get overwhelmed by it.

And so that brings us down.

So we have to stay strong.

And in doing that, it's okay to turn things off, limit exposure, engage in distracting activities, things that bring us pleasure and calming effects.

Dr. Geiger I read somewhere that getting involved and maybe either volunteering for a group who is collecting things for people overseas or even just making a donation sometimes that can help quell those feelings of anxiety and fear.

Yes, I agree with that.

Those are constructive approaches.

Those are things that can be done in a proactive way, and that does make us feel like we're we're contributing something.

We're doing something about it.

And as you said, you could you can join an organization, you could write letters, you could perhaps join a protest, but a nonviolent protest at that.

So what?

Because where we don't want to get into being part of the problem.

We want to do things that where our voices are heard.

We may be making a difference, but we don't want to contribute to the problem as well.

Sure, you had mentioned different approaches for different age groups.

Let's talk about addressing this with children.

So many kids these days have cell phones right in front of them.

They're on social media.

They're seeing some of these violent images play out.

How do we talk to our kids about this and specifically what age group do we talk to them about it?

Well, I think you're right.

The age group matters for younger children.

I think that the parents need to be a little bit more direct and directly involved and to make sure that they're limiting the exposure that the child is having to events that are violent and disturbing.

And for teenagers want to be more independent and don't really want parent involvement.

There's still things that can be done, such as modeling for the the teenager.

What I parent am doing to take care of myself with these disturbing images and news feeds so that I'm going to limit the time that I'm exposed to it.

And the teenagers can see that.

I mean, you could also ask directly and you could say, how much time are you spending watching this and saying, is that okay?

Do you think that's okay for you?

Do you think you should take some time away from that?

And talking to a teenager about it directly is fine.

But for children, I think the parent needs to be much more direct and saying we're going to limit the exposure, we're going to engage in normal activities, we're going to do things that are just make you feel safe and that you don't have worries.

And that's the normal routine.

So the play routines, the household routines, the study, educational routines, sure.

At what age do you think you start to address this with children in elementary age?

Is that too young to start talking to kids about this and having this conversation?

I'm sorry.

and when does it get when is it scary versus something they need to know about?

You know, this doesn't happen here in the United States, but hey, it happens in other countries.

Well, I think you're right.

I think you need to frame it somewhat like that.

We need to be able to say, you know, there are things that happen in the world around us that are out of our control, that things go on that are unsafe.

And it we can't.

And what we have now in our family life and around us, we are safe and we are okay.

We do need to ask sometimes, what do you know about it?

What did you hear about it?

As any of your friends talked about it, have you heard news about it?

And then based on what they say, you could address that, you know, but also always pointing out to them that those it's okay to at times to be upset about that.

And at the same time, we need to care about what's going on in our life so that we're okay.

We can't do much about that, but we can make sure that we're okay.

And we have to have faith and trust in our leadership that they're going to be able to take care of that as best they can.

And again, if you're a faith based family, you could also say that God will or will protect us, will be taking care of that.

That's not something that you need to be taking care of, something that we as adults are are in responsible for.

What we want you to do is to be a healthy, normal kid.

So and engage in those activities.

Sure.

Dr. Geiger, you mentioned faith based.

If there's children out there and family, there are families out there who are of faith right now who are being targeted, the Jewish faith, faith in some cases the Muslim faith.

So how do we approach that with those children if there is parents who their children are, are Jewish?

And how do you talk to your kid about that, that they are being they're other children who are Jewish in the world, that people are trying to hurt or kill even?

Well, it's very difficult subject.

And again, I would approach it in a very realistic, calm manner and meaning that indeed things are going on in parts of the world where there are people of our faith in our religion that are being aggressed against and in that it isn't right and it isn't something that we are we want to see happen.

And it's going to be upsetting to us.

It's going to be distressing, and we're going to have to figure out what to do about all that.

And knowing that there isn't much directly we can do about that and just and get engage them in talking as best we can about what upsets them the most about that.

And and and as they talk to once again to help them to put it in perspective how much we can do about it, what we can't do about it, the limits of our powers and turning it over to a higher faith power that it's going to watch and do what they can about it.

Sure.

A lot of these feelings that we're feeling, it's a completely different situation than, say, 911 or even the pandemic.

But they feel heavy like that situation.

Is that what you're hearing from parents?

And is this something that we just have to learn to address with our children?

Is this normal to be addressing these types of situations?

The pandemic war overseas with our kids?

Yeah, well, that's a good point.

What is normal keeps evolving and it requires new ways of coping and new ways of addressing what we're faced with on a daily normal basis.

And we the days of having just peaceful, non violent advice.

Our news in the news is is not part of our daily life.

It's we we need to be able to find a way of normalizing it without overreacting to it and catastrophizing what's going on.

We still want to have hope.

We still want to have faith and belief in the goodness of human people.

We want to be able to know that things will work out and have faith in that and and work towards doing whatever we can to make that happen.

But the the idea that violence is part of our life in deed is there and we need to so we have to take care of our family.

What's safe for us to make to our our situation as as safe and healthy as possible.

So you bring back one's focus to one's immediate world where you can concerned about others, but concerned about us and what can we do about making ourselves safe.

And things are okay for us now and in the future.

Sure.

And what are some signs, whether it be in children or adults, that maybe this person might need more help than just some of the coping mechanisms you just talked about?

What are the signs that this might be a little bit more severe and they may need to seek professional help?

What should people be looking out for?

That's a good question to the most parents know their children don't when things are going okay.

It was a range of okay ness and there's a time when they could tell something's up, something's not quite right.

So that's one thing.

Once you see something like that happen, then you need to be able to step in and ask what's going on and and address.

Just ask those questions and help the child to express themselves for other people, for adults, if you're losing focus, if you're not being as productive, if you're not sleeping well, if you're not eating the way you normally ate, if you're more irritable, if you're not able to relax and and be able to show interest in your activities that you would normally show interest in, those are all signs that something is amiss and we need to take time and address it.

And that can be done either by taking it, stepping back, reflecting and doing what you need to do for yourself, or reaching out to others, whether that is for another family member or whether that is a provider of a medical service or whether it's a psychologist or someone in your faith to try to seek some help and talk it out first, things always is to talk it out, put it into words and try to make sense out of it.

Put things and just the expression thereof is a relief, and it helps to restore us and bring back some homeostasis.

So again, those signs where you're just not functioning the way you normally would and you're not relaxed or happy, those are signs that it's time that we need to take some action.

Psychologist Dr. Dennis Geiger, thank you so much.

Some really valuable information today.

You're welcome, Brittany, and thank you for this opportunity.

Of the roughly 800,000 people in the Lehigh Valley, about 8000 of them are Jewish and 5000 of them are Muslim.

Faith.

That will do it for this community conversation.

The Mideast crisis hits home.

We want to thank our guests for joining us tonight, Rabbi Michael Singer of Congregation Brith Shalom and Imam Yusef Rios of Respect Mosque and Respect Graduate School in Bethlehem for sharing their thoughts and insights.

Also, Professor Jeremy La Torre and psychologist Dennis Geiger for helping to navigate through these times.

From all of us here at PBS 39 and Lehigh Valley News.com, we want to thank you for watching.

We hope this program has provided different perspectives of what's going on and how we can all gain a greater understanding of one another.

Thanks again for joining us.

I'm Brittany Sweeney.

Have a good night.

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